Launched: Collection of Contemporary Kazakh Poetry & Fiction in Chinese Translation

Readers can now purchase the 374-page volume featuring 41 pieces of fiction, most translated from the original Kazakh into Chinese (中国当代少数民族文学翻译作品选萃 － 哈萨克族卷).

This is part of the Chinese government’s official translation project (“民译汉”), initiated in 2013, which aims to make writing by ethnic minority writers available to Chinese readers nationwide. This represents a change in orientation from earlier times when most translation was unidirectional, i.e., from Mandarin into a given minority language.

According to a brief review of the collection (民译汉工程) by 艾克拜尔·米吉提, it includes poetry, short stories and excerpts from novels from the 50s right up to today.

Featured Kazakh poets include:

• 库尔班阿里, 尼合迈德·蒙加尼, 夏侃·沃阿勒拜, 玛哈孜·热孜旦

Featured Kazakh writers, some writing directly in Chinese, include:

• Yerkex Hurmanbek (叶尔克西·胡尔曼别克), 哈依夏·塔巴热克, 丽娜·夏侃, 阿依努尔·毛吾力提. For an excellent interview with this author in Chinese, see 叶尔克西·胡尔曼别克专访：消失的牧歌.

Featured Kazakh-to-Chinese translators, mainly female, include:

• 常世杰, 姚成勋, 张森棠, 焦沙耶, 张孝华, 哈依霞·塔巴热克, 阿里, 韩玉文, 金炳喆, 丽娜·夏侃, 哈那提古丽·木哈什, 库拉西汉·木哈买提汉, 波拉提·巴德力汗, 星星, 吉恩斯古丽

For readers fluent in Chinese, these other volumes — translations from the Uyghur, Tibetan and Mongolian into Chinese — in the same collection may be of interest:

• 维吾尔族卷
• 藏族卷
• 蒙古族卷